The ziyarah of ‘Ashura’

Peace be upon you, O son of Amir al-Mu’minin (the commander of the faithful ones) and chief of the prophets’ successors.

Peace be upon you, O son of Fatimah the chiefess of the women of this world.

Peace be on you, O he whose blood-claimer is Allah, He is the blood-claimer of your father also, as those who persecuted you, your relatives and friends have not been punished for the crimes.

Peace be upon you and upon those souls who had gathered in your camp.

I pray and invoke Allah to keep all of you tranquil and restful forever; so far I am alive, this is my prayer, and till nights and days follow each other.

O Abu ′Abdullah, unbearable is the sorrow; never-racking is the agony you put up with for us and for all (true) Muslims.

Crimes committed against you also shocked and unnerved the dwellers of the heavens, one and all.

Curse of Allah be on the people who laid the basis and set up the groundwork, to wander astray and turn aside from not only you and your family, but also to take liberties and bear hard upon you.

Curse of Allah be on the people who tried to obscure and deny your office and status, willfully neglected your rank and class Allah had made known in clear terms.

Curse of Allah be on the people who killed you.

Curse of Allah be on the abettors who instigated and had a part in the murder committed against you.

I turn to you and Allah away from them, their henchmen, their followers, and their friends.

O Abu Abdullah, I make peace with those who make their peace with you, and make war against those who go to war against you until the Day of Judgment.

Curse of Allah be on the family of Ziyad.Curse of Allah be on the family of Marwan.

Curse of Allah be on the group and the tribe of Umayya, everyone, altogether.

Curse of Allah be on son of Marjanah.

Curse of Allah be on Omar ibn Sa’d.

Curse of Allah be on Shemr.

Curse of Allah be on the people who saddled and put bridles (on their riding animals) and veiled (their faces as sings of getting ready) for fighting you.

My father and mother be sacrificed for you.

Profound is my sorrow for you.

So, I beg Allah who honored you above others to be generous towards me on account of you and give me the opportunity to be with the victorious Imam (Imam al-Mahdi) from the descendants of Muhammad, peace be upon him and his family.

O Allah make me attend to Your cause sincerely in every respect following in al-Husayn’s footsteps in this world and the Hereafter.

O Abu ′Abdullah, I seek nearness and seek greater intimacy with Allah, His Messenger, Amir al-Mu’minin, Fatmah, al-Hasan, and with you, through the help of my love and patronage for you and through disavowing those who laid the foundation (for your suffering), carried out their corrupt plan for action, boldly gave currency to reign of terror and cruelty to oppress you and your friends and followers.

I detach myself from them and present myself to Allah and to you.

I first seek greater intimacy with Allah and then with you through my love for you, and for those who love and support you, and through my disavowing your enemies and those who wage wars against you and disavowing their patrons and followers.

I make peace with those who make their peace with you, make war against those who go to war against you, make friends with those who accede to you, and antagonize those who antagonize you.

Therefore, I make a request to Allah Who acquainted me with the awareness that perceives you and your friends and bestowed upon me with the grace of disavowing your enemies, to make me keep company with you in this world and in the Hereafter, stand firm beside you, and follow your footsteps closely in this world and in the world to come.

I beseech Him that He helps me to reach your highly praised station given to you by Allah (to meet you),

that He provides me the opportunity to fight for justice and fairplay along with and under the leadership of the rightly guided Imam who surely will come and speak the truth.

I beseech Allah in the name of your right and the purpose He assigned to you that He overwhelms me with grief in memory of your sorrows more than the personal grief that torments any one who is in great agony—sorrows which have no parallel and overshadow all calamities that took place in the history of Islam, for that matter, throughout the whole universe.

O Allah, in this situation, treat me like him/her who obtains from Your blessings, mercy, and forgiveness.

O Allah, make my life go on in the same way as the life of Muhammad and the children of Muhammad went on and make me die on the same principles on which Muhammad and the children of Muhammad die.

O Allah, this is a day of rejoicing for the Umayyad dynasty and for the son of that woman who ate the liver (of Hamza)—the son who, as well as his father, is cursed by You and Your Messenger, peace be upon him and his family, in every situation and occasion drew the public’s attention to this truism.

O Allah, curse Abu Sufyan, Muawiyah son of Abu Sufyan, and Yazid son of Muawiyah, and make it a never-ending curse upon them from You.

This is also a day of joy for the family of Ziyad and the family of Marwan because they killed al-Husayn, peace be upon him.

Therefore, O Allah, double up the curse You bring upon them and also the punishment You decrees for them.

O Allah, I seek nearness to You on this day, all my lifetime, and in this frame of mind through disavowing them and cursing them, and through my being loyal to your Prophet and the children of Your Prophet, peace be upon him and his family.

Then say one hundred times:

O Allah, curse the first tyrant who unjustly and wrongfully usurped that which rightly belonged to Muhammad and the children of Muhammad, and bring curse upon those who, after him, followed in this footsteps.

O Allah, curse the conspirators who vexed and harassed al-Husayn, showed eagerness, agreed mutually, and joined hands to kill him.

O Allah, curse all of them.

Then say one hundred times:

Peace be upon you, O Abu Abdullah, and upon those souls who came to your camp to put themselves at your disposal.

So far I am alive and days and nights follow each other, I invoke Allah to send blessings on you forever.

Allah may not make it the last time for me to visit your tomb.

Peace be upon al-Husayn, upon ′Ali ibn al-Husayn, upon the children of al-Husayn, and upon the companions of al-Husayn.

Then say:

O Allah, let the curse I call down be on the first tyrant (who wronged and persecuted Muhammad and his children) and stay up forever on the first, then the second, then the third, and then the fourth.

O Allah, call down evil on the fifth; Yazid son of Muawiyah, and curse ′Ubaydullah Ibn Ziyad, son of Marjanah, ′’Umar ibn Sa′d, Shemr, the family of Abu Sufyan, the family of Ziyad, and the family of Marwan until the Day of Judgment.

Then, prostrate yourself and recite:

O Allah, all praise of the every-thankful ones is due to You for the misfortunes that they encountered.

All praise is due to Allah for my deep, intense grief.

O Allah, make available for me the intercession of al-Husayn on the Day I present myself before You, and let me stand firm in safety before You on account of my sincere attachment with al-Husayn, along with him and his comrades who sacrificed everything they had (hearts, minds, souls, and lives) for al-Husayn, peace be upon him.